photo taken from the gallery on here ill get some more up soon. not nessecerialy in the right order just what i remember

The story started back when i was 17 (now 21) when i had my first cento an 899 had far too much fun in it. Brought a second 899 for £30 did the HG then sold it.Then brought a new car and cento no1 sat on my drive looking very sad. Fast forward to the beginning of last year and i spotted an ad on here for a cento shell needed so i offer her up and swapped for my 3rd Cinquecento a crashed yellow sporting from purf. i only was going to use parts for my now deceased 126. part of the swap also included a set of wheels and some other parts. stripped cento no3 to a shell learning a lot about how they go togeather faults etc and most importantly collecting a big pile of parts, bolts, clips i kept everything.

Of course i could never be cento-less so spotted on ebay cento no4. described as needing a new engine (big ends gone) but having some new bits and a new set of tyres. Brought unseen but it seems i did well. The big ends turns out to be only an alternator (which i had). Did the handbrake with parts i already had, lowered with new shocks and using springs off cento no3 (40mm lower), insured for a rediculous ammount and drove it around relighting my enthusiasm for these cars. once tax and mot was up there were a few problems that needed sorting so it came off the road for a rebuild.

i needed more power and this came in the from of a 1242 8v that i removed in the rain from an x reg punto (mpi setup). this turned out to have HG faliure and had never been serviced came complete with treacle oil which stank and needed old engine oil to flush it out (wouldnt move at all). I ported and polished the head from cento no3. Got the flywheel lightened and balanced with the crank assembly (4kg), put a 866 cam in and cleaned, painted replaced as much as i could.

It was the cars turn next first was the rear. I removed everything stripped, painted with new poly bushes. I read on the forum about rear ARB and decided I had to have one so MGF bar order for £15. I cut out the centre section and welded the two halves together. I made up some plates to weld onto the lower shock mounts. To mount to the rear beam I used standard outer ARB brackets and welded them upside down so the open side faces out. The exhaust hanger was cut of and a new one from an old back box was welded on. The drop links were made from a piece of flat bar as i decided adjustables were not needed and the same bar was used to close the brackets on the beam. It all bolted up with front strong flex ARB used. The tank mountings were retapped for bigger bolts. The tank itself was bare metalled then painted although this turned out to be a waste of time. New brake lines were run. I then turned my attention to painting the underside while it was all off paying close attention to the inner rear arches. The whole rear was reassembled. I made a new number bracket and used a nos one that came of cento no3.

hope these explain how it all works

rear end

I then turned my attention to the front. The little 1108 was removed, ancillaries swapped to the new engine and the gearbox cleaned. The bay was cleaned and in places repainted. I put in a new rad and tested the fan and switch. The front arms were polybushed as was the ARB I made a new ARB bracket as the old one wasn't good. The ballpoint gaiters were sourced from a Massey ferguson tractor of all places brought on a whim at a local show. The shocks were treated to new top mounts. New brake lines weren't needed at the front so the brakes were cleaned and new pads and disks were put on from cento no3. The engine and gearbox mounts were polybushed with strong flex inserts. Like the rear the underside was repainted. Then it was all bolted in, the exhaust was fettled for the extra height.

The interior was next. I removed all the rear excluding the door cards. I then tracked down a pair of seats from an mx5 collected them. To mount I had modify the runners and then fabricated some mounts from box section which the seat bolts to and then bolts to the floor using the original mounting points. For front seatbelts I used the rear fabric stalks bolted to the floor. The carpet was removed scrubbed and the underfloor material removed the carpet was then replaced. Since I was now sitting a lot lower the steering column was lowered with spacers made from solid bar. The gear stick was also shortened. The handbrake came out of my 126 as it was slightly shorter than the cento on. The steering wheel was a bit more involved. This came from my 126 but had a different spline so I removed that one very carefully and welded in a cento one I had I then used the horn push from the 126 although I do have an 899 one that I can switch it to.

8 months after I started I Moted tax etc after a few hiccups. It was worth it the car corners flat the turn in is amazing serious grin factor inducing. The interior turns out to be the best mod ever sitting with my shoulders level with the window bottoms the wheel straight into my hands no aches or pains anymore.

Enter the abarth bumpers found at my local scrappy prised out of their hands with one side skirt the other had gone AWOL and the spoiler was destroyed all mine for £30 these are yet to be fitted and are being prepped

It quickly became apparent that I was burning oil a quick thought appeared that I had snagged the stem seals when fitting so head removed a week before Stanford hall and cento no3 head was put on but when doing so I noticed that the pistons had lots of play in their bores not good how I never noticed it I do not know. So I slung it back together turning my attention to more important matters wheels. The wheels purf had given me were some revo rfx 13x6 in 4x98 fitment. So 15mm spacers ordered. Now with days to go to Stanford they needed painting so grabbed some yellow metal paint that I had slapped that on and got them fitted.

Stanford arrived the journey was good comfortable only issue was stalling at junctions and using lots of oil using 4.5 litres for 320 miles not good at all something needs to be done an abarth spoiler was collected from whitz

Not sure if you have seen this but one of the polish cento rally guys did a write up showing that a corsa b rear arb is a perfect fit, if I ever get some spare time I fancy giving it a go. Does it make much difference?

Thanks for the link not seen that before like the parts he's made up to go on the rear beam looks a neater solution. There's another one in the group a papers that goes through the beam just a straight solid bar which looks good and you'll be able to go slightly thicker.

Result of the arb amazing it handles very flat I'm pretty sure I could get it to lift off. Think I might experiment and take the front off to see the affect of it.

This is only the start of it there's tonnes more done which ill copy over soon. This was all done back in 2011-2012? It's been a long haul.

I've seen pics of the setup and diagrams in the papers looks pretty easy to do and retains space in the backend as mine is extremely tight

Ok let's get started...

Engine

Insurance was consulted and giving me a great price on a 1.4 16v and up rated brakes (big thumbs up to sky insurance)so I decided to bypass another 8v swap instead going for the 16v swap been rather rapidly collecting parts for it.

It appears I got a good buy with it as it seems to had a new clutch and cam and tensioner so a few less bits to worry about and buy. I've decided to keep this engine standard for now so only needs a few parts swapping and a lick of paint before it goes in

On to the engine bay. I removed old smokey the 8v lump together with gearbox wiring loom, rad etc. i then removed the firewall fabric the channel it runs in etc. the heater assembly was then removed to clean it and sort out underneath it. Once removed the bulk of the work started I removed the battery tray completely by removing the spot welds and chiseling it all off then ground smooth I also removed the screw locations for the firewall fabric. The whole area was then treated to a lick of paint. I took the opportunity to relocate some of the body wiring loom so it looks a bit neater. I then put the heater box back in.

Pics

the 16v engine

smokey the 8v started to get a bit hesitant and burning yet more oil so out it came

Sorry for the jump Im Terrible for taking pics and forgetting to update threads

I'd thought I'd update this i have been doing stuff not just welding east gearman metal up! As seen before I took it down to the mot which it failed on a few bits but the main issue being was poor running no performance at all which failed the emissions as well. This has since been tracked to a faulty/incorrect lambda sensor so I replaced that and crank sensors with known good ones that I got from chras.

On driving to the mot station it quickly became clear that the gear changes didn't feel as I'd hoped which was down to my gearstick setup so. I've now removed standard undercar box and made up something to sit inside. This means that I can shorten my current stick and I've also decided to add weight/beef it up a bit (noticed tube had started cracking where it was thinner from grinding down welds) by adding a piece of 16mm solid which slides inside my piece of 20mm stainless tube so in effect I have a 20mm thick gearstick. The stainless tube I will just hold on with a 10mm bolt so it's removable for polishing. I can now run gear cables inside.

Not a setup I'd wanted but this car is quickly changing from a quick showy car to a just a quick car that I can bash round castle coombe and others on a regular basis won't be caged or buckets but other bits will change and become more extreme. I'll get some pics up soon next step is engine removal again so I can run gear cables, new brake lines and a good tidy up. I think a det 3 piggyback or standalone version is well in this cars near future ready to run new itbs/tbs on a new inlet mani which will have longer runners so heater removal a possibility

So lets add the bits that's been done for ages just never documented

Brakes

Front I went with marea calipers same as the pgt setup

Rear a little different. I wanted an upgrade but I didn't want to faff with disk brake setups. So I had a punto that I was breaking upon investigation I realised that the rear drum brake setup is really good slightly different to Cinquecento meaning that the handbrake elbow still had play and wasn't seized:eek:

So I stuck it in the shed then it was brought out once I was ready. The problem is that its a two cable setup utilising a different handbrake style. I originally thought about modifying the handbrake to fit the car but soon gave up on that so decided to modify the Cinquecento and Cinquecento handbrake to accept the cables. I removed the piece where it all mounts to which was spot welded in. I then changed where the cables mount to and modified the handbrake to accept the cables no photos of this bit ATM.

Next up was the drums turn. The punto drums had two fixing with a small hole in the centre. So the centre was welded up and then drilled out with a hole saw. I managed to use one fixing the other was welded up, flatted down and drilled in the right place. The whole lot was painted and fitted with new cylinders which incidentally is bigger than Cinquecento

Shoe setup

On the top right is the adjusters. Bottom left is where the handbrake cable goes in

Then I assembled it bit more fiddly than the Cinquecento

You'll notice that just above the bottom spring runs the handbrake cable which slots in the end like so photo taken from the back through the inspection hole

Haven't really driven the car much since conversion but handbrake seems really positive working well. There is a marea setup exactly the same just bigger

wheels

They are 14x6 et38 lancia wheels I use 15mm spacers on the rear and 18mm on the front which helps to add clearance with the 6spd box. They are wrapped in 195/45/14 uniroyal rain sports.

Rear end view notice my 0-60 eventually sticker

gears

As previously said my previous setup wasn't working out sloppy changes and a bit fragile so I decided to move it inside the car so I made this out of 3mm steel. Then a piece of thick ally was cut drilled and tapped to accept the gearstick mount

Then I cut some stainless Allen bolts to fit, polished them and made some blocks for mounting to the car. The rest was sprayed up to match the box. For the actual gearstick I cut the tube off the bottom ball then drilled the ball out to 16mm. Why 16mm well the piece of 20mm od stainless tube that's my gearstick has an Id of 16mm so purchased some 16mm solid cut to size. Plug welded at the bottom with the mig and then tiged around the top. The piece of stainless slips over and I drilled and taped the solid section so the tube is held on with an m6 bolt so I can easily remove it for polishing:D. The result it weighs a tonne meaning that wherever its moved its going the result should be a very positive gear change. It measures 400mm from base of the box to the top of gear knob

As you can tell by the ammount of photos I've taken I'm pretty happy about how this gear stick has come out just the bracket on the stick to make and tig on then lots of polishing:D the previous stick came up to the height of the centre of the steering wheel which was a bit extreme so I made this one shorter

other bits

Battery went in on a mk1 punto mount modified

I've always, when driving centos had my toe at the very tip of the accelerator pedal so I made a longer one that clamps and glues on to the original still yet to polish the screw a bit more

Did a rallyinq single wiper conversion so it looks like this

General shot of the engine bay as it stands. Wehad some work done on the house and the Cinquecento took the brunt of the dust hence all the sawdust in the bay

This also arrived So have broken out my colouring pencils and other stationary to start on a wiring diagram for it

Looks like I might possibly be buying some more wheels for this in 14x6 flavour et 25 just got to work out how to get them from Leeds without using a courier

I've actually never really seen a set in 14x6 only the 13x6 even then they are pretty rare

Should arrive on Monday been powder coated white so just need a clean

New set

That brings us upto date I've pretty much done the wiring diagram for the det 3 so I'll scan in and post that up soon. Any bits you want clarifying then ask away and I'll try and explain better and better photos sorry for the mishmash bit of a copy and paste.

You do if your about in the new year and I'm better ill take you around coombe in it if you want hoping to get some trackdays in it next year

I got some from motorsportworld which are 15mm and come with bolts. But if I was to do it again I would get some of the spacers Ming posted then get some studs and nuts from mr t bit more expensive but a better way

Black box,with the 13" revos what tyres,type of spacer and wheel bolts did you use?

I actually made myself a spreadsheet where I could adjust everything and it would give me the range of bolt lengths to give full thread engagement but without hitting brake parts.

Currently using 16mm spacers on front with ET38 wheels and 50mm bolts, rears are 10mm spacers and 40mm bolts.

edit: just to clarify, I think the hubs are 12mm thick, which means you want about 9 turns of the bolt for it to be fully engaged (1.25mm pitch). The rears iirc only had 4mm after the back of the hub before the bolt would rub on the drum brake components.

When I first got the wheels, they came with 3mm spacers and 27mm bolts, but the bolts only screwed in 3 turns and I took em back off again.

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